If you’ve ever been to one of Edward Tufte’s seminars, you were probably caught off guard when the whitecoats begin moving through the aisles, carrying ancient manuscripts from the likes of Galileo and Playfair that are the original books of what he’s showing on overhead slides. It’s a powerful experience that amazing everyone in the room.
However, on December 2nd, Edward Tufte put his impressive collection of historical books and art up for auction at Christies. Bioephemera describes the auction:
There appear to be 160 lots; Tufte’s website describes it as “200 rare books, including major works in the history of science, statistical graphics, 20th-century artists books, ET artworks, Sidereus Nuncius (1610), Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).” Apparently Tufte intends to use the proceeds to fund his gallery ET Modern, among other art projects.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know about this earlier. You can view the “Catalog” of the auction at this link.
ET went on his own website to discuss why he put these masterpieces up for auction:
Great books foster, transmit, and preserve forever knowledge. The books in my research library were always meant to be used: read, skimmed, read aloud, exhibited, photographed, scanned, shared, treasured. And thus my library, which I thought of as The Museum of Cognitive Art, participated intensely in my research, scholarship, writing, teaching, design, artwork. For 30 years, the workaday presence of these wonderful books in my life was inspiring and challenging.
If you want to know what they went for, hit this link at Christies. In total, it looks like he made a smooth $1.8Mil, with Galileo’s ‘Sidereus nuncius magna, longeque admirabilia’ bringing in $662,500.
